


Safety Net

by TinyBat



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, TW: Self Harm, angstiness, tw: suicidal ideation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-03
Updated: 2012-10-03
Packaged: 2017-11-15 13:50:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/527989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinyBat/pseuds/TinyBat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things aren’t perfect for Jefferson and Emma takes it upon herself to be there when getting through the day looks like it’ll be an uphill battle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Safety Net

**Author's Note:**

> Tweaking this one too from the tumblr version. but not by too much.

It didn’t take a genius to know when Jefferson was hurting. He was like a wounded animal curling up around itself to stay safe. 28 years alone with the only thing you want out of reach will drive anyone to the edge of sanity and it had broken him. After the curse was broken Grace had run to him but the unspoken agreement was that he was unwell and needed to put himself together again so they could be a family.

Emma visited after work at least three nights a week and made a point of keeping her phone on in case he needed someone. Ruby and Archie both kept an eye on him, one because she always wanted an older brother and the other because it was his job and his pleasure to look out for people. Emma was happy for the help but all the same she cared a lot more for the man in the forest than she’d admit in a room full of people and wanted to be there as much as he’d let her.

Some nights he was just fine and they’d sit up talking or watch a movie or he’d play music on one of the many instruments he had scattered through the house. Others she’d find him in one of the bathrooms removing glass from his knuckles or sitting quietly in one of the darkened rooms of the top floor idly tying and untying knots in a long piece of rope. When he was lucid he was witty, charming, and intelligent, as warm a person as you could expect but finding him staring at a blank wall shaking and in tears made her forget that completely.

The nights Emma stayed up with him he’d be too quiet for hours and then begin to shake or murmur quietly to himself; she’d take him by the hand and watch his face move from perfect non-expression to a rictus of fear and sadness. His sudden rages and quiet madness worried her but she stayed all the same because she had hard moments too and not once was there someone to hold her and get her through. She had done it all by herself and if being there for him was going to give him his daughter back then she’d stay forever. She had picked out one of the smaller bedrooms near his own and in the quiet hours when he was asleep she’d think about how the man on the other side of the wall made her feel.

Emma was well aware of how he watched her and how he would move just that much closer to her when they would sit or stand or dance or just exist. He smiled at her jokes, he sat and listened to her stories, he gently corrected her mistakes when she made him teach her something new to keep him distracted. He cared as much for her as she did for him and that was a comfort even if she knew how people would disapprove.

Every emotion it seemed possible for a person to have Jefferson brought out in her and the intensity of them intrigued her. She knew Ruby noticed because when the girl had come to switch out she gave the arguing pair a curious look and tilted her head upwards as if she was sniffing the air. Yes, Ruby knew and strangely enough Emma was fine with that. She could love someone as sharp and beautiful as a shattered stained glass window and she would stay there in that lonely house putting the pieces together again. As much as she was there for him, in a strange and subtle way he was there for her too.

A safety net isn’t there to keep someone from falling, everybody falls. A safety net is what catches you and the two of them were more than happy to serve that purpose.


End file.
